European Elegies/Winter/Infinity
54.INFINITY
I love to linger on this lonely hill,And lie behind this hedge whose gloomy yewBlots out all distant vistas from the view;For here the air is so profoundly still,Time seems so merged into eternity,That in the mystic silence all my brainIs flooded with a mood where fear and painAre lost in a strange peace, serene and free.
And as I hear from every branch the wailOf vast wind-voices, waves of passion sweepFrom out old ages, and my senses fail;Until dead years and moments speak once more,And my dazed heart, lost in a misty deep,Swoons towards oblivion on its endless shore.
From the Italian of Giacomo Leopardi.